This is a very well-written pity piece by a young editorial assistant at National Review, Charles C. W. Cooke.
Cooke was born in Great Britain and marveled at the freedom and mobility of American society from afar. He liked it even better when he moved here. Alas, he sees the re-election of Barack Obama as an unparalleled catastrophe and asks, “If we are to lose America as it has been, could we not ask that it be lost to something better than this?”:
But, consider this: A president of the United States just ran a reelection campaign based on the promise of government largess, exploitation of class division, the demonization of success, the glorification of identity politics, and the presumption that women are a helpless interest group; and he did so while steadfastly refusing to acknowledge the looming — potentially fatal — crisis that the country faces. And it worked.
Worse, as David Harsanyi has observed, “the president’s central case rests on the idea that individuals should view government as society’s moral center, the engine of prosperity and the arbiter of fairness.” This stunted and tawdry vision of American life was best summed up in his campaign’s contemptible Life of Julia cartoon, which portrayed the American Dream as being impossible without heavy cradle-to-grave government, and in which the civic society that Tocqueville correctly saw as the hallmark of the republic was wholly ignored — if not disdained outright. “Government is the only thing we all belong to,” declared a video at the opening of the Democratic National Convention. In another age, this contention would have been met with incredulity and confusion; in ours, it was cheered.
Cooke isn’t the only doomsayer out there. Prominent pundits like Mark Steyn have also drunk the Kool-Aid and proclaimed the death of America “as we know it.”
Others agree, but seek to motivate the right to fight back and do their best to stop the statist juggernaut.
I don’t know why it is that the right feels compelled to exaggerate the probable consequences of Obama’s re-election. It is utter nonsense to posit disaster for the country when you base that prediction on a flawed, wildly imaginative analysis of what an Obama second term will bring.
We don’t have a “cradle to grave” welfare state now, nor will we have one in four years when Obama leaves office. The president can issue executive order after executive order to try to realize that goal, but good luck, Barry, getting the money to pay for it. Money bills still technically originate in the House of Representatives — a body controlled by the Republican Party. I daresay if the president believed the GOP were obstructionists during his first term, he ain’t seen nothing yet.
There will be a lot of can kicking in an Obama second term. And while we have a debt and deficit crisis, it is not at the point that it would collapse the economy any time soon. Modest economic growth in the next few years will result in a corresponding rise in revenue, thus bringing the deficit down to a more manageable level (along with some token budget cuts). There are pitfalls to avoid, but the short-term fixes that will be agreed to by both sides will allow us to avoid any kind of a massive economic meltdown so confidently predicted by many.
We won’t face up to this crisis. But a Romney win would have resulted in the exact same stalemate. A Romney presidency might have improved the situation at the margins, but would have achieved essentially the same results. As for halting the slide toward statism, the president’s hands are pretty much tied as long as the GOP maintains its House majority and the filibuster isn’t completely shelved by the Democrats in the Senate.
The GOP may be reduced to fighting a rear-guard action against efforts by liberals to “transform” America, but as long as they stick together, they should be successful. And it should give us heart that, as Philip Klein points out, Americans agree with the conservative critique of government:
According to exit polls as described by Politico, “53 percent of those surveyed said the government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals — a figure that’s risen 10 points since the 2008 election. Comparatively, 41 percent of voters said they believe government should be doing more.”
As bad as things are economically today, they were worse in 2008. As the economy improves, the American people look to the state for assistance less and less and support the idea of limited government more and more. This has been part of the American response to economic hardship for decades, and while there is proselytizing and outreach by conservatives that need to be done in order to remind our fellow citizens of our exceptional nature in this regard, the core belief in this principle is solid and isn’t going anywhere.
People like Cooke sell Americans short. There is too much reliance on a “boiling frog” scenario, where we all just sit around and allow the president to have his way with America, radically altering the country and shaping it into his image of a European social democracy. The liberals had two years to accomplish this and the best they could do is Obamacare — a law that both Democrats and Republicans are already talking about drastically reforming.
This election was as much about rejecting Romney as it was about embracing Obama — perhaps moreso. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with Americans, and in four years they will be given another chance to prove it. So let this be the last “woe is us” post-election analysis. Not only is it unhelpful, it’s simply not reflective of reality.
sorry Rick, I love you, but you need to get out of the house more. America as you and I (actually I’m about 25 years before you) grew up in is gone – watch 10 minutes of network tv, or hang out at a movie theater, or the mall, or sit in on a college class – and in 2016 it will be 65/35 democrat to repub.
America has jumped the shark. And that happened before Obama came on the national scene.
America as I knew it (I’m 65) is a fond memory – what has happened these past 30 years has seen to that. Things change – people change – the list of our enemies seem to get longer with every passing year – and so do our problems both here at home and abroad. I doubt Romney could have staved off either our enemies or our problems. There is no stomach for fixing what is broken other than to hang some patchwork to this house of cards.
Americans are more comfortable than ever letting government do for them what they once did for themselves. My parents (RIP) felt that WWII was the turning point in their lives – they recognized that their America would never come back. Innocence was stripped away (their words) – the idea of government dependency (welfare SS food-stamps) was a foreign idea to them although they did warm up to SS since they paid into the system. There was much to miss (other than the Great Depression) about the ‘old’ USA – the USA that existed before WWII. People didn’t ‘visit’ on the phone – they went to visit for real. Families hardly ever moved away more than a few miles and you saw each other on a weekly basis – often daily. Now days we use face book and twitter (I refuse to use either) and call it a visit. Things change – minds and attitudes change. My mother and grandmother referred to their neighbors as Mr. or Mrs. so-and-so. Respectfully. Even the black neighbors! These are things I remember – that I’ve heard. I don’t see that respect for friends and neighbors any more.
Times change – people change. What passed for indecency in my parent’s youth was gradually accepted in my youth – and the things that 12 year olds do – the way they dress today would have gotten them in big trouble in my younger days. I can’t imagine how a 12 year old girl would have been treated in my parents day dressing the way they do.
People change – times change – in some strange way I understand why the Islamics are at war with us. They see their world changing from the way it was and don’t want it to change further. Looking around they see us as the movers and shakers of their world – having great influence on their youth. We of course wish to overlay our morales on them. Not saying beating the crap out of your wife or daughter is a good thing just that this is their culture – and they don’t wish for their culture to change. Hardly anyone wants their own culture to change – except for those that see themselves being oppressed by that culture. And there is the crux of what is going on between us and them – its a culture war.
There is an old saying – you can never go home again. That has never been truer than it is today – perhaps its always been true. My America is gone – for good or bad – it can’t be fetched back. I can’t ‘go home’ again – and my one big wish is that the islamics won’t be able to go home again either.
And Rick – sorry but I’m going to morn the loss of ‘my America. It was a decent place. Or maybe I was innocent of all the corruption around me in my childhood.
Ignorance is bliss and I’m not very blissful these days.
Wisdom does not seek bliss, it seeks truth and the truth can be most troubling. You are a wise and thereby troubled man Paleo, but you are not alone. The blissful are about to find out that ignorance has a price. Their Prophet will eventually demand the ultimate sacrifice from his followers and the sheep will only come to realize the true nature of the beast when they hear the screaming of the lambs.
My fundamental belief is that we win in the end. But only if we refuse to give in. Thus, I think “woe is us” is useful, so as to cage brains on the difficulties. Then I think folks should move forward, resolute in determination.
We are not the Britons fighting off the Angles and Saxons; we are not the Gauls about to become “France”; we are not Samarkand about to fall to Mongol hordes. But we could be. All things are possible. The men at Bataan fought bravely and nobly. They still lost. On the other hand, the men at Rorke’s Drift won. As I said–all things are possible. More is possible when you decide you will attempt to make them so.
I doubt at Valley Forge during the miserable winter of 1777-8 George Washington could have really have told you what was the *exact* path forward, even with French entry into the war. Sometimes you simply have got to say “I haven’t lost yet, they don’t seem to be able to get the final blow in, I don’t know how we actually win, but it doesn’t seem imposible, so we hang on and we fight on.” It is my belief that the reason the names “Lexington”, “Bunker Hill”, and “Valley Forge” have come down to us as sacred, even though all were basically defeats or disasters, is because the men of those times realized the only way to guarantee liberty was to be willing to fight for it–even when things were against you. The Spartans lost at Thermopylae. Greece lived. It would not have had there been a compromise with Xerxes, based upon an unemotional calculation of force ratios.. Churchill had no reason to realistically believe England herself could ever defeat Hitler. He fought on. Sometimes, he who dares wins. On the other hand, the Melians lost, and the entire population enslaved. Such is the way of history. Things change.
We of non-Progressivism are having a Melian dialogue right now. Myself–I’m simply going to fight and profess what I believe in. As far as I’m concerned, the conduct of the media in this election was basically the final declaration of outright “war” against non-Progressives. My dealings with academia–very, very mild as they have been–have also convinced me there is a societal outcome desired by that set, and that they intend to have it no matter what–the setting of culture by academia, not culture by the people. Since I do not fully agree with the outcomes desired (at the very least, the emphasis and piety, as well as the return of the hierarchical society, in this case one ruled by PhD.s), and since I object to the methods used to attempt obtainment (i.e., stealth), I have no intention of surrendering, even if the only thing I can do is retreat. But I intend to fight. I hope I am not alone.
I also intend to win. You see, I don’t like to lose.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK2hKzZss5Y&feature=youtube_gdata_player
What you overlook is that we did not lose a military battle. What we lost was an election. And what is depressing so many of us is the dawning suspicion that the only way to preserve the Republic is to destroy the Democracy. President Obama refuses to enforce the laws of the nation, with the result that more and more “Americans” are actually foreigners indebted to, and loyal to, the welfare state. Who will hold him accountable to the oath he swore? The body charged with that responsibility is the Senate, which is ruled by Democrats. Don’t hold your breath.
If you let a bunch of hungry strangers into your house, and you run your house on democratic principles, then what’s for dinner may be you. We just had the election, and the hungry strangers now control the Menu Committee. So, the question is, when they announce the menu, and some of your family are on it, how strong is your commitment to democracy? And even if it isn’t all that strong, well, then what? There are an awful lot of them, and those knives are sharp.
Demographics is destiny! The changes in the electorate that allowed an unqualified socialist to become president will continue. All things end; nature is cyclical as is history. The USA peaked in about 1980. Other cultures are accendent and will displace the USA as world Hegemon; as the USA displaced Great Britain. Only the timing is in question and given the current lack of leadership the decent can only accelerate. Denial of the decent cannot prevent the decent. Think of an aircraft out of fuel. Aerodynamics and Economics are unforgiving; Gravity always wins! Regards
Humbug. “Demographics is Desitiny” in this context is nothing more than alliterative racism. This election had nothing to do with demographics, or even policy. It was decided purely by turnout. Obama ran the most sophisticated and effective GOTV system ever. We…didn’t. And still 500,000 votes in a few swings states would have changed the outcome. If Romney had gotten all the votes McCain received he would have won the popular vote, and probably the election.
History is not cyclical. It is the past, it has no force on the future. We see it as cyclical for the same reason we see men and beasts in the night sky. We are pattern-seeking animals. We are also not in an airplane without fuel.
A crisis is coming. As Thomas Paine wrote “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.” Let taxes rise. Let the budget balance by running into the debt ceiling. We can use the liberals’ own rhetoric against them. Pass a permanent extension of the Bush tax cuts and say “We’re not going to play the Democrats’ politics of division, we want to ensure all Americans pay their fair share.”. Pass a balanced budget and say “At some point you’ve borrowed enough money.” We have two years for the economy to adjust, by that time it will either be improving or it will become the new normal. Even the liberal media machine cannot keep outrage ginned up for two years. We also need to stop ceding the minority vote to Democrats. Not by pandering, but by outreach. Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics are just as capable of understanding economics as anyone else. The fact that they largely don’t is because we’ve never bother to track them down and explain it. If we can get 30% of the minority vote the Democrats are done.
There is a path out. It isn’t easy, and it will be painful, but is there. After the disastrous first day of Shilo Sherman found Grant sitting under a tree. “Well Grant, we’ve had the Devil’s own day.” Grant replied “Yep. Whip ‘em tomorrow, though.” And he did.
The situation right now is that whatever economic pain Obama’s policies cause, they haven’t adversely affected enough people yet to affect the coalition the Democrats have put together — basically, the “something for nothing” mentality still plays because the bill hasn’t come due yet.
And the other thing is the bill isn’t going to come due uniformly. States like California and Illinois are the ones pushing the envelope towards bankruptcy, and if the economic conditions fail to improve or even slip back in a second Obama term, will be the first ones headed to Washington demanding taxpayers from the other states bail them out. That’s when the coalition could start to get shaky — for the people who never pay any taxes, they won’t care if Uncle Sugar gives California a spare $150 billion or so to pay their bills without major cutbacks in public sector worker salaries, benefits or pensions. But people who like to get stuff from the feds who do pay even the littlest amount of taxes and have been listening to Obama’s “class warfare” message also aren’t going to be happy about people in the Golden State or the Land of Lincoln getting their debts written off with their dollars.
Coalitions are never forever. Eventually, new issues come up that pit those groups against each other. But it will be up to national Republicans to give them a reason to leave the coalition (and the fact that 2016′s field should avoid a glut of 2008-and-earlier retreads who were at the head of the 2012 field should also help make the candidates’ more palatable to those swing voters who contrary to conventional wisdom, broke for Obama at the end).
It’s part something for nothing and part aren’t we just so much cooler, better educated and morally superior to those wingnuts. attitude.
Vote Democrat so you can claim moral superiority without the need to either curb your appetites or expend energy striving for superiority.
When we won big in 2010 there was none of this talk about the end of the democrat party. Nuff said.
There was a lot of liberal talk about the failure of democracy and the ungovernable rabble and so on after 2010. And possibly will be after 2016 as well.
The major parties sell their constituents the idea that they can get their hearts desires if only those evil so and so’s in the other party weren’t so darn mean/stupid/cunning. They need one another. But they don’t need to split the loot with a third party, so dont get your hopes trying to get in on the action.
There is no reason for despair because despair is only for those who can see the end with certainty – and none of us can see that. But, still, I think you don’t quite understand just how bad our fiscal crisis is at the moment – we cannot keep borrowing and printing like we have been. By 2015, unless we get some sort of handle on the problem, it will hit us like a ton of bricks as either printing sparks massive inflation or borrowing results in rapidly rising interest rates as the world increasingly doubts our ability to repay. I also don’t see how anyone can expect modest economic growth over the next few years – from what? Every economy in the world – including ours – is slowing down; some of them with alarming rapidity. Fiscal cliff or no, we’re likely already back in recession. The only thing which can stave off disaster is significant cuts in spending – and Obama won’t agree to that. So, we’re rather stuck…with a prospect that various can-kicking might stave off disaster until 2016 or 2017.
But this is also not the time to get all gloom-and-doom. The basic line of thought goes like this: Since Obama is re-elected it means ObamaCare stays and WE’RE DOOMED! Well, folks, we were doomed – but back in the 1930′s when FDR enacted Social Security. As soon as the concept of government taking care of you was enshrined in law the American experiment – as founded by Madison and preserved by Lincoln – was over. All we’ve done since then is allow things to come to their logical conclusion. Conservatism has done nothing more, since the 1930′s, except to conserve liberalism. Within the Ryan plan was (and is) the way out – setting up programs which use the very statism of liberalism to undo liberalism…his plan to implant free market ideals in to Medicare was the Madison Trojan Horse (as it were) in the FDR Liberal Fort.
Unless and until we undo the entirety of liberalism we won’t win – and we won’t be able to do that until we’ve secured not just a mere Presidency, but enough executive and legislative power to amend the Constitution. That has to be the goal – and in achieving that goal we have to radically re-think how we do things. Trying to cobble together a “battleground” victory of 270 electoral votes (essentially our model 2000-2012) is simply not enough. We need to win it all – which means we need to find a way to appeal to at least 40% of those constituencies (Latinos, African-Americans, single females, Jews, Asians, etc) who rejected us utterly this past Tuesday. Think on that – think and then think some more: how do we do it? As we find the answers to that question we find the key to complete victory and a restored America.
It is certainly not the end of the world or even of America and I would not advocate giving up. Stil, I am not optimistic about any economic growth in the next few years. I think 2016 will make 2008 look good.
Yeah. Come on guys. Sure we lost the 1932 election but there’s another election in 1936 and after that 1940. We’ll just keep coming back and playing as hard as we can. Think of the Washington Generals, surely some day they’ll win. In only 48 years Reagan will be President.
Oh goody. So we have a decade of depression to look forward to, and then a world war. Only this time, we have nukes.
I can hardly wait.
And 40 years out of control of Congress and the Judiciary.
I dont think we are going to make it that far.
It’s called “Pollyanna” Rick Moran.
I wonder what the pundits were writing in Rome, circa 400.
I guess they wrote about the sacred geese of Rome.
So, pretend you are the sacred geese of Rome and draw the right conclusions.
I disagree that the election was about rejecting Romney. Until the election fraud has been thoroughly investigated and the stolen votes totaled up, I will not go there. What if ORCA ,the Rebublican get-out-the-vote program, was criminally sabotaged? What would be the remedy for that?
According to Mark Levin, the Speaker of the House can be any citizen, not necessarily a member. I nominate Romney for the job. We would get the Romney of the first debate, I believe. It would be Churchillian and show the nation the seriousness of the situation and Romney’s seriousness of purpose. What do you say, House members?
So now what? A steady diet of Hannity, O’Reilly, Ingraham, Huckabee, Levin and even Steyn? We need a different class of conservative. One who doesn’t count as conservative. One who can walk among the liberals in their liberal dens and take followers and breed dread. This is not about violence. This is about those individuals (yes individuals and not media personalities) that can make others see and not simply lecture. We are now a true cause. We don’t even know its parameters. What we do know is that it is needed, that we will grow as a people pursuing it and that we will be stronger because we will have made believers and not voters. Let us despair, if despair leads to action. Let us rejoice if rejoicing leads to action and let us declare business as usual if business as usual leads to action.
I’m sure you are right, Rick. But you’re a fool if you don’t see where it’s trending. And that trend is is on the downside, with the incline growing steeper.
However, as I said in another post. It’s not the Republican Party that will collapse whatever the name, as the principles more sound. Truth always wins out.
It is the Left Wing of the Democratic Party that will collapse. I’m not worried about it being “Over for America.” I’m worried about how much pain there will be when the earthquake hits before we put it back together.
Yes, Tex. That is the logical development. I don’t think it will take years. Spring of 2013 I would say. No household can run on borrowed money forever.
Rick, fyi:
The frog is cooked, they’re plating him up right now.
Seriously…. your position is based on the presumption of moderate economic growth? The economy has actually been growing sideways for over a decade now. Democrat policies have restrained growth in several key sectors; what leads you to believe they have the ability, or worse yet, desire, to alter course?
The insanity of all of this is that even a Progressive True Believer, would have to have at some point realized that prosperity is necessary to achieve the utopian vision.
The folks who sense that we are going Euro are not wrong. I believe the genius fraternity has already surrendered our future to a throttled back economy, high structural unemployment with high rates of dependency.
Oh, but don’t worry, it hasn’t happened yet? Sorry, but you are the freakin’ frog.
This is the one comment here which seems to touch on the truth. The issue isn’t whether we will have a liberal US or a conservative US, but whether we will have a US at all. And I don’t see how we can.
Our country is broke, and it’s getting worse. We have a government which is increasingly sucking the country dry. I am not talking about policy here, but simply about economics.
Moran completely misses this:
“As bad as things are economically today, they were worse in 2008. As the economy improves, the American people look to the state for assistance less and less and support the idea of limited government more and more. This has been part of the American response to economic hardship for decades, and while there is proselytizing and outreach by conservatives that need to be done in order to remind our fellow citizens of our exceptional nature in this regard, the core belief in this principle is solid and isn’t going anywhere.”
Why in the world would anyone think the economy will improve? Or at least, improve enough to pay for the government? Our spending won’t drop, we can be sure of that. Fewer and fewer will be able to even find jobs in productive businesses. The “solution” will more and more government jobs, or government subsidized jobs, which will suck even more out of the productive economy.
Eventually, the one reason people will “look to the state…less and less” will be that the state, eventually, will have nothing left to give. But when that happens, the state will collapse. I do not mean an economic crisis. I mean a loss of control over more and more of the country. Our political system will simply not exist in an increasing number of states. And without law, strong men and organizations will replace them. And those without the means to protect themselves will have to turn to them to give us some protection.
Hint: What is the title of Hayek’s most famous book?
Yes – America, as we have known it, is done.
All you have to do is hop in your car and actually DRIVE across the country to see the decay everywhere.
If that isn’t enough for you, check out our future by looking at the before and after pictures of Detroit.
Still not convinced? Well, Sandy should have convinced you. It convinced me and the election drove it all the way home. We’re done.
Neither party spoke to the tens of millions of voters who stayed home.
Both parties think their main problem is failure to communicate effectively.
Just wish this Governor Rick Perry had not had back surgery too close to those circus-style primary debates:
“…Tuesday’s election results reflect a divided country, Perry said, but reinforce the strength of America.
“One of the great things about America is that we’re back at work. There’s not rioting in the streets, there’s not chaos,” Perry said.
A vocal critic of Obama’s signature health care legislation, Perry said he remained adamantly opposed to expanding the Medicaid health insurance program to more low-income Texans. Providing affordable health care options should be the province of the states, he said, and the federal government should let the states innovate.
“You’ve got to respect the 1oth Amendment,” said Perry, while tacitly agreeing that states should be allowed to legalize marijuana, as Colorado did Tuesday. He hastened to add that Texas wouldn’t be following suit.
He saw reason to be optimistic about the future of the GOP, even as Republicans worried that demographic and ideological shifts across the country don’t favor them.
“It’s important for the Republican Party to stand up and be very clear about (its) values, whether it’s allowing people to keep more of what they work for, giving people freedom from overtaxation (and) overregulation, standing up for innocent life,” Perry said.
“All those are values that are clearly associated with the Republican Party,” Perry added. “Frankly, it doesn’t matter whether you’re Hispanic, African-American, Anglo, Asian, whatever you might be. I think those values are rather timeless.”
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/perry-talk-of-2016-presidential-bid-premature/nS2hy/
The only way America can get a real growth bump will be to accelerate import replacement with American oil. Even Obama knows this. And is talking with Kent Conrad of North Dakota, where fracking works. So, keep your eye on the next SecInterior.
I took great comfort in Charles Cooke’s post last night. Takes a Brit to explain what America is losing.
But, if Romney had won there would have been rioting.
The minority believe in and follow the rule of law.
The majority no longer do.
Yes, I’m sorry, but America is done.
Romney never talked about the corruption that led to the economic debacle of 2008, I don’t recall him talking about Obama’s Solyndra and other giveaways. Ryan, a so-called fiscal conservative, voted for virtualy all the big-ticket items of recent history as well as the liberty crushers. The list could go on and on, but that should give you the idea. There was effectively no difference between Obama and Romney.
The country has turned a corner proclaiming implicitly that truth no longer matters.
Remember in the debates when Obama said the price of gasoline was high because the economy was so buoyant? Who challenged him on this?
Remember in the debates when Obama lied about the Benghazi terrorist attack, to which the moderator admitted to after? Who challenged him on this?
May God have mercy on us all.
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Rick, I appreciate you’re desire to put a moderating break on the doom, but really, the US has turned a corner we’ll not get again. If you only look at the Supreme Court appointments that Obama will surely get to make, his tenure will have an outsized effect for a generation or two. Just like FDR’s court changed America and our relationship with our federal government, this too is worthy of doom.
The executive orders you mention are a big deal. This administration will be able to so thoroughly transform the part of the Government that no one has the will to undo… and the part(s) that directly affect our daily interactions.
Double down on public sector unions. Shutting down coal production. Nanny-state regulatory environment with fingers in every pie. Control everything. I see lots of reasons to view this as just not another election we had the flexibility to lose.
“…the Supreme Court appointments that Obama will surely get to make, his tenure will have an outsized effect for a generation or two.”
Hate to break it to you, but the public schools have already completed this job; Obama, will, I believe, take it to new heights.
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Yep, I heard this quip but I cant remember where.
America can survive another Obama Administration, but not a citizenry that put him there.
Another short sighted and RINOesque article by Rick Moran. Simply put Obama is the Julius Ceasar of America. While it may not seem apparent to some initially the fact is that this is both the logical conclusion of the previous era, and the beginning of a new era. The parallel that can be drawn to the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire is startling. After a few decades of increasing political based violence, and hard shifts towards populism (often accompanied by appeals to free stuff for the masses) Sulla, then Ceasar both became consuls for life, setting a precedent for ever more control becoming centralized so that what you see is an empire formed from a republic. After a few generations of Imperial rule it becomes literally impossible to revert back.
And suggesting that we don’t wake up, realize how severe the crisis is and do something, anything, to set us back on track is no better than treason at this point. The Republic is becoming a centralized empire, and this is the tipping point. If we don’t turn it around now then the next generation will not even be aware of how the previous generations lived then it will be beyond saving since there will be nothing left to save.
If I might expand upon your Roman parallel just a bit, at this point I won’t even be surprised to see Christians being thrown to the lions. Figuratively. For now.
Obama is not “Julius Caesar”, that role is reserved for the first president who gets impeached, convicted in the Senate, refuses to leave office, and gets away with it. Obama is, however, definitely preparing the ground for that future American Caesar by his lawless executive orders and lawless recess appointments. Remember, however, how lazy Obama is; he is quite capable of doing basically nothing at all for the next four years, using strong Republican opposition as an excuse. However, being lazy, he also knows that always telling people just below him in the government hierarchy to go ahead with whatever strange ideas they come up with is the quickest way to get them to go away and leave him alone. Hence we can look forward to regulations run riot, with attempts to use the regulatory apparatus to raise government revenues. He will also appoint all the odd and radical people his political backers suggest, again as a way of getting people to go away and leave him alone. Hence those new regulations will be doozies. Also, scandals everywhere, eventually reported even by his doting MSM since Obama will be an ever lamer duck as 2016 approaches. There’s no real evidence that the basic media celebrity cycle has changed from “first build them up and then tear them down.”
When I compared him to Caesar I meant in that he is the beginning of the new era. Caesar wasn’t the first dictator for life (Sulla was) and he wasn’t the first emperor (Augustus was) but he was the turning point; the man that we can point to and say “he is the one who turned Rome into an empire”.
would need lots of popcorn to see the community organizer handle himself at gergovia
I say let the sequestration begin. Let’s open that can we keep kicking and find out what the hell is inside. Most ‘citizens’ don’t have a clue. Let’s open it, yank the contents out for the world to see and find out what there is to talk about. Let Obama and his mates on the left and right eat whatever is in the can and stand up do their job and quit pointing fingers and whining. I’m tired of all of them and all of it. Let’s get going and either implode and start over again whichever way it takes us or at the least stop the victimhood, the whining, the name calling and all the other crap. Geez it is so annoying to listen to all the time. Get up and do something or get the hell out of the way.
Thanks for your time.
Every Pilot knows that there is a point on the run way beyond which there is no recovery in take off. He either ascends, or crashes. The question many ponder is whether we have reached, or past that point as a nation. There is general agreement that we are closer to it than four years ago.
The fundamental result of perhaps the most vicious Presidential campaign in modern American history is a complete break down in trust. The exact same humans who spewed venom on each other for the last two years, retain the same powers they had back then. Can/ will they work together for the common good? Biden said two months ago, that Republicans want to bring back the whips, chains and slavery to black Americans. They believe him, voted against Romney, after the bulk of their meager net worth has been destroyed. Will Republican Senators work with grinning Joe? I see no reason to believe why they will.
Does anybody trust the EPA to equitably regulate fossil energy? Or do you expect to pay $10 – $20/ gal for gas while Obama is President? Can you survive this cost? 9,000 citizens of Louisiana have signed a petition, since Wednesday, to request the White House to be allowed to peacefully leave the United States of America. Is this normal post election political conduct? Does anyone believe that the culprits of Fast and Furious, our failed immigration policies or those who lied to the voters about Benghazi “protestors”, will be held accountable? Do you want to pay for another’s abortion? You must and will.
This election will have consequences, life defining consequences. If America exists in the future, this election will be seen as a key event. Every branch of the federal government, at all levels, will be distrusted, with money and power. America is different today than last Monday.
Hate to break it to you, but November 4 2008 was the exact date America died after more than a quarter century on a dying bed; now, we are only four years into her disintegration. More decay is on its way, and I’m afraid nobody can do anything about it anymore. Sad, very sad indeed.
30 years ago (in 1984), I read an obscure paper about the “Decline of the US Economy: a perspective from mathemcatical ecology” by an obscure author (Dimitrios Dendrinos), in an obscure Journal (‘Environment and Planning A,’ Volume 16). Using data going back to the 1920s, it proved to be spot on.
While Romney wouldn’t have fixed it, Obama apparetntly won’t even try. Clowns to the left of me, jokers to right … hey, whatever, a trillion here, a trillion there … . what’s the big deal? It’s not like it’s real money.
This particular article by Mr. Moran makes so little sense that I have no idea how to respond to it.
You can wear all the white hats you want, but if you keep losing out to the other guys – and often enough to your own party reps and politicians – you’re doing something wrong somewhere. (You’re not on the side of the angels, here, folks.)
It’s not a culture war or a war against women or bad mechanics or bad messaging or an un-informed electorate – or even control of the narrative by a complicit MSM or anything else you can think of or use as an excuse. These things need to be overcome, but they aren’t the real problem. It’s your underlying philosophy that’s a bit off the mark, which causes everything you do to fall on its ass. You think you’re the party of freedom and of small government and balanced budgets…but you’re not. (Your opponents are worse, but that gives you no excuse.)
Even Steyn finally bought a vowel. (He’s still baffled by the puzzle, though.) Cooke sheds light in the darkness, however poorly it was expresssed.
Mr. Moran’s commentary? A complete disconnect from reality. At best, it’s a comfortable lie that you tell yourself after you’ve screwed the pooch and embarassed yourself.
Ok, so the ConReps are off the mark; what is your solution?
America’s past is full of turmoil and near defeat, especially in her infancy, yet she survived, but the blows have taken their toll over time.The old cliche “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” also changes you, and not always for the better. I believe this country is to the world what Christianity is to religion, something so radically different that most, especially the educated and elites, will not accept it and will seek it’s crucifixion for it represents, to them, a threat to their power and position over the hearts and minds of everyone else. To non-believers, just look upon the Bible as a cautionary tale. Man’s history is a series of stories of men trying to rule other men who refused to be ruled, sometimes even by God Himself. The ruler seeks to take care of you and will provide and protect you if only you give up this notion of independence and trust in him.That’s only true with a perfect God who allows you to choose. That is not true with Man, for man is imperfect and there is no choice. “Man is opposed to fair play, he wants it all and he wants it his way” to quote Bob Dylan. In the past, force was the weapon of persuasion that has changed to a less destructive but more deceitful approach. Today, fairness is more important than freedom and free stuff is of more value than free will. So surrender in the name of equality, it won’t kill you, I “hope” you understand, but it will “change” things. Adam and Eve were seduced by fairness and equality too. “Eat the fruit” he said,” and you will be like God.” They had it all, but gave it all away on the belief of a promise not possible by one who sought to possess and not provide.
“There is nothing fundamentally wrong with Americans, and in four years they will be given another chance to prove it.” Wrong.
Is it the end of America as we know it?
Pretty much for those of use getting on in years. I thought Affirmative Action would be the end of America as I knew it. It didn’t happen right away, but over time, it’s come damn close. We have an Affirmative Action president, of whom the voters were so proud they couldn’t bear to fire him for malfeasance, misfeance, and/or being a Manchurian president. Nope. The self-absorbed with their own virtuousness just had to hang on to him till he could destroy what was left of America as I know it.
I’m turning the fight over to . . . the self-absorbed, me-first, ignorant, therapy-obsessed, entertainment-besotted Gen-Xers and Millenials. Good luck to the rest of us.
Besides, have you heard their “music”?
It is the end of the Constitutional Republic. The current Executive branch does not need the House for money. They just have the Treasury offer securities for auction, and the Fed buys the securities. There has been no budget for 3 years — so what? The House can impeach but the Senate under Reid won’t convict — won’t even take up an impeachment.
Therefore the legislative branch has been neutralized entirely.
Obama can continue to print his own money, rule by executive order, and have his DoJ refuse to enforce laws he doesn’t like, while persecuting those he wants to crush. He can kill with drones and authorize “kinetic actions” without Congressional approval. What are the practical limits on his power? None.
“Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and gave him triumphal processions. Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the ‘new, wonderful, good society’ which shall now be Rome’s, interpreted to mean: more money, more ease, more security, more living fatly at the expense of the industrious.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero
Well, I can’t beat that. We who are about to die, salute you.
The First American Republic is over.
It is however not Obama and his clique who killed it, they just moved into the empty house. It is the moronic Democratic party writ large, the Pelosi and Reid contingents, who will eat the seed corn and burn the house down to pop it. One can trace this back to this and that social and political source, but now it is what it is. It is not a crisis of poverty, not really, and it is not a crisis of rising expectations as poverty is lifted.
I’d say there were two triggering events. One was 9/11 and our need to fight two modest wars. Even modest wars are expensive, and were not pursued with much political will, not by Republicans and certainly Democrats. The second piled on top of that, and was the 2008 financial collapse. The banksters are stealing the Republic. And our leftist president doesn’t do a thing about it. Ironic, huh. And most Republicans are in as much denial about 2008, as most Democrats are in denial about 2001. Well, maybe the First American Republic, just done wore out.
WHEN did it fall? In retrospect, let’s make it the election of 2008, when the American public, dazed and confused, elected a posseur from nowhere with an Islamic name, rubbing their failure in their own faces. But then the alternative was a confused old guard guy who chose an even more confused young woman as his second. The public wasn’t given much of a choice. Therefore, the system had already broken down on both sides, on all sides, in 2008.
The End.
… of course it’s not really the end, something comes next, but after the discontinuity it’s impossible to really guess what.
Sarah Palin is not a confused young woman. The fact that you and the rest of the left continue to eviscerate her to this day proves that she is still feared.
And the argument can be made that the republic died with the civil war. The south is still being punished to this day. We may not like why they wanted to seceed, but it was their right to do so. The republic was never meant to be a suicide pact – but it is.
Woodrow Wilson started to really stick a knife in our back and Roosevelt finished the republic off. The strength and character of a Christian nation carried us on for a while. But when the left took over the schools and negated what parents were teaching their children – well, we see where that has led us.
Before the Civil war people referenced the country as “These United States”. After the Civil war our country became “THE United States”. A small, yet very important distinction. One cannot not help but look at the Electoral Map red/blue divide and see that the North still opposes the South, with NorthEast and West coast against the middle. One major change, hoever, The Party of Slavery once led the South, now the Party of Slavery leads the Country.
“We don’t have a “cradle to grave” welfare state now, nor will we have one in four years when Obama leaves office.”
I really don’t know what dimension you’re living in, but we sure as heck have at least the foundations of a cradle-to-grave society right now. If you’re a low-income worker, you have free public education, free medical care, probably free or at least subsidized housing, food stamps, unemployment benefits, disability (if needed), and when you get to college, cheap student loans which you probably won’t have to pay back if Obama has his way. And let’s not forget about the Dream Act, which Obama has just implemented on his own through an Executive Order, not through Congress. Better yet, look at that cartoon strip the Obama people put out during the election called “The Life of Julia.” Notice the woman has cradle-to-grave benefits, AND NOT HUSBAND. After all, who needs a husband and a father for your kid when you have the government and Uncle Sam? This is only going to get worse over the next four years. Whatever Obama can’t ram through Congress, he will do via Executive Order like he has been doing. He will be a defacto king, implementing his will on the people with no checks and balances. And if Congress doesn’t stop him (like they didn’t do last year), then he’ll get his way.
The only way to stop this is by getting more conservatives elected in 2014. Also, we don’t know if Obama will be impeached over this whole Libya fiasco. I doubt that, but Obama and Biden are going to look real, real, bad at the end of all this. That may hurt the Democrats politically and that could be a big help in 2014. Other than that, all I can say to you is what Queen Victoria said to her daughter on her wedding night. She is supposed to have said, “Lie back and think of England.” Sound advice for the coming four years.
I’ll only address a small portion of your comment — “cradle to grave” welfare state.
In the public sectors your failed to mention government subsidies for everthing imaginable to the states and local governments. In the private sectors you failed to mention government subsidies of every kinds across all industries and business.
These subsides started with good intent at one point but over many decades have become a ‘machine’ of political and private sector economic corruption. It built a ‘partnership’ of corruption between government and the private sector.
The government facilitated largely consolidating and centralizing our national economies (starting in the late 50s) that are easier to control and to big for failure.
The government spent many decades involved in nation building and otherwise trying to create foreign relationships (to the tune of bilions and billions of dollars) for the sole purpose of expanding our economies to those nations. Now we listen to the democrats holler to the heavens about american outsourcing to those foreign nations in order for our nation to remain competitive in the globla markets to include our own domestic markets. Ironically, it was the Clinton era that excellerated consolidation of americas manufacturing and outsourcing to foreign shores….with the blessings of the GOP.
A mess not easily reversed!
LET IT BURN!
Jim Whittaker
Hemet, CA
In defense of Moran, it isn’t over… yet. There is much that can still transpire to change the trajectory we are on. It is a downward spiral to be sure. But the states can separate. A leader can step forward. It may not happen, but at least we can hope. Want to help? Get down on your knees and pray to God. Send your kids to church and teach them the laws and values that made Western Civilization possible. Without God on our side, it’s over.
Funny, you don’t look like Colin Powell but you sure sound like him.
How is the economy to get better with all the layoffs and reduced hours now in the pipeline as Obamacare is implemented? Not to mention at the regulations the EPA has in the pipeline and the administration’s determination that energy prices rise even higher. Businesses will continue to hunker down in survival mode for the foreseeable future.
The entitlement problem will also continue to fester. Between 2005 and 2010 the ratio of workers to retirees fell from 3.3to 2.8 and birthrates continue to tank. When it falls to less than 2 to 1 do you think those who spent time and money raising children will be kind to all the free riders?
You live in Illinois. Do you see any signs on the horizon that the people there have any interest in getting the state’s financial house in order? Or that Chicago will halt its quest to become pre Katrina New Orleans by the Lake- a beautiful downtown for tourists and a few trendy neighborhoods for the childless and gays with much of the rest of the city a free fire zone for gangs. California moved in the wrong direction.
This is a reprise of the election of 1936 only the President who got reelected has none of the savvy of FDR and more than a full helping of the fecklessness of James Buchanan.
I don’t think it’s “woe is us.” It is more “G*d Damn the RNC!” Those asshats cost us the last two elections and barely won with Bush. If Kerry hadn’t been such an ass in Vietnam and the Swift Boaters hadn’t gotten the word out so effectively, he’d have won. Heads need to roll at the RNC, new blood brought in and the party needs to get back on message with real candidates that are clearly different from the Democrat and can be trusted to stay that way.
Still, as others have said, the Conservative values that made this nation great aren’t much in vogue anymore thanks to decades of liberal control of the schools, media and bureaucracies. They’ve framed their “we’ll give you a free living in exchange for being our slaves” message quite well, amongst other memes. It will be very hard to break that and the tribal politics our system has degenerated into.
It’s not just the RNC. The entire political consultancy industry based in DC is often worse than useless. I’ve been around a couple of Congressional campaigns that have attracted national money- which often means accepting national consultants, too. Have yet to meet one that is useful accept for stuff like navigating various filing and reporting requirements. The don’t know squat about anything except the inside game in DC. That means they can’t help in deciding how to frame the issues to best appeal to local voters. Indeed, I’ve heard advice that was actually counter productive. They can also antagonize local help. I heard that was very much the case with some Romney people.
RE: “And while we have a debt and deficit crisis, it is not at the point that it would collapse the economy any time soon.”
Maybe, maybe not, I assume you are aware that the Federal Reserve buys over 70% of our debt and is printing money out of thin air to cover our spending which is currently at 40% MORE than we earn and rising due to the demographic tidal wave of baby boomer retirements now arriving.
I also assume you are aware of moves by China, Iran, Russia, India and other key economies to abandon the US “oil” dollar system in favour of bilateral trade agreements for oil paid for via PM’s, trade goods in kind or their own currencies.
More countries are beginning to sign on to these type of agreements BTW, they see the United States as a weak horse now and uncapable of getting it’s printing and spending problems under control.
Saudi Arabia is always willing to accept gold as payment for oil instead of $US. It cannot be printed out of thin air after all.
The US dollar will remain the worlds “reserve currency” only as long as the rest of the world is willing to accept it as “money good”. The wheels have been coming loose for a few years now, how much MORE printing money out of thin air can it withstand before they fall off completely?
We may find that “4 more years” does not just signal the end of the Obama administrations rule.
Fundamental transformation indeed…
Good post.
Monetizing our debt will chase off willing lenders.
The boat is about to sink. The state failures like California will ensure it happens sooner rather than later.
On the plus side, once the collapse happens, the Mexican Nationals disrespectors of US sovereignty will self deport.
The creation of the federal reserve has proven to change not just America but the entire world over the many, many decades of its existence — not for the good it seems! It became corrupted along with everything else and may well have been the instrument of corrption along with the labor unions influence of corruption.
Our constitutional republic is done. The Democrats correctly judged that the hardcore Left and the hardcore clueless now add up to a majority in America. After a century of trying the Progressives finally wrested control of the nation away from the people. Obama will get to appoint 2 or 3 more Kagans to the Supreme Court, so there really is nothing left for conservatives to conserve.
The next political battle of consequence will be on the Left, between those who dream of transforming America into a Sweden or a Canada, and those who plan to follow the path laid out by Lenin and Guevara. Place your bets wisely.
Take a good, long look around the typical large American city. Don’t see too many Swedes do you?
That should answer the question of which flavor of collectivism we’re going to end up with.
OK. Right. Amnerica won’t change much. Medicare D will go on; so will medicaid, so will disability, et al. And all will be larger four years from now. Energy, which has increased by from 50 to 100% in the last five years will likely double again. Go read the EPA regs about to be unleashed. The NLRB is set to radically change collective bargaining in the SEIU favor. Bernanke and Treasury will add at least another several trillion of phony money. And the list goes on and on and on.
But, this guy is right. The only difference Romney would have really made is he has a moral compass and might slow things a bit. Why, he could have been another W.
The election results are pretty grim. Normal politics won’t do from now on:
1. The Supreme Court is virtually certain to be run by the radical left for more than one decade. Since SCOTUS has assumed final authority over everything in the land, normal politics are an insufficient counterforce.
2. Regulatory agencies, e.g., EPA, are drunk with the power to dream up all sorts of regulations and assume that they have the force of law. Many agencies have their own police forces. They’ve recently bought hundreds of millions of hollow-point bullets.
If “ordinary” politics won’t do, what will? Assertion of our rights:
10th amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” States should “man up” and assert their rights over ANY branch of the federal government, INCLUDING the Supreme Court. For example (please correct me with a better example, if you have one) Arizona should detain and deport illegal aliens, and should arrest anyone who interferes with their law enforcement officers, including federal officials.
Regulatory agencies: individuals and corporations (such as incorporated farms, for example), as well as states should refuse enforcement of federal regulations written by unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats instead of elected and accountable Congress. For example, if someone is cited for paving over a temporary puddle on private land, the person should ask for the specific law forbidding the paving. If the officer replies that it is a regulation rather than a legislated act, signed by the president, the person should thank the officer for his concern, and bid him good day.
Given that the federal courts are virtually certain to be run by the radical left for the foreseeable future, and Congress has wriggled to escape its lawful burden of accountability by empowering federal agencies to enact rules having the force of law, we (and our several States) should refuse to play along. If we meekly let them just take away our rights, we will not like the result.
You’re right about that. According to this article, Obama already has over 6,000 regulations coming in the next 90 days. I guess 11,000 pages in his last term weren’t nearly enough.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/6125-proposed-regulations-and-notifications-posted-last-90-days-average-68-day
“Don’t Fear the Reaper” – Liberals Confuse Which Party is Dead
Say, Rick, when will the Ratchet Republicans stop trying to fund an insolvent State? Because Obamacare is the cradle and the grave, and the budget-buster of all time, yet the House refuses to stop funding it because it is ‘the law of the land’. Yet it is not the US Constitution, and the oath of office is to be faithful to the Constitution, not voluntary spending programs.
So when will the Ratchet Republicans finally try to ratchet government backwards?
I haven’t seen it in my life time.
You tell me, Mr. Bright and Cheerful, just why you put your faith in fallible man to actually DO THE RIGHT THING? Because, as of now, this moment, the Republican Party has YET TO DO THAT with regards to spending and MAKE IT STICK. I consider those voting to fund this behemoth as no longer adhering to the Constitution which requires a budget. Yet spending has gone on WITHOUT ONE so the people cannot hold these people accountable. By failing their duty and their jobs, they enable far worse than the mere Nannystate: they turn the State into an unaccountable actor because THEY refuse to hold it accountable which is their JOBS.
Get cheerful when Republicans actually adhere to their oaths and do their jobs, wouldya?
With every new day, America is different then the day before. With each new generation a point of reference of what America used to be, is lost. Maybe someday, historians will highlight whats termed the “greatest generation” spawned what should always be remembered as the worst generation in America’s history. At no time in history has such a single generation led America into such a decline.
Yep. The Baby Boomers should be ashamed of themselves, but they are not, and continue their masturbatory adulation of themselves via popular culture.
We racked up 20 Trillion in debt so we could enjoy the good life on the backs of our grand children. That 2nd house and all those lavish vacations whilst aborting the burden of child rearing were worth it!
Morally bankrupt, narcissistic hedonists.
From world super power to failed state in one generation. They dont even have the decency to be ashamed and beg forgiveness.
Brothers in Arms, I hate to say this but some of the reactions to this election remind me of the Brecht poem “the solution”
***
The Solution
Bertolt Brecht
After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writer’s Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
***
We lost the election for several real, solvable reasons. We had a weak bench; a couple of stupid rich people wrote checks that allowed zombie candidates like Gingrich and Santorum to keep running long past any point of viability; our nominee went to sleep for three months, allowing Obama, Axelrod, Plouffe, and Company to define him; we had one hurricane during the convention and one right before the election; Romney picked Ryan rather than Rubio; Orca; and most seriously, much as the deficit and debt concern us budget hawks, this issue does not speak to the majority of our fellow citizens who can’t even manage their household finances. (The two Presidents who did something about the deficit, Bush I and Clinton, did it by lying to get elected and then doing the right thing anyway.)
And besides, it’s really hard to oust a sitting president. Republicans have only done it once in the past century.
Despite all of that, we came within 2.5 points, and if it hadn’t been for Orca we might have pulled it off. Whining is for sissies, and Democrats. Let’s have a stiff drink and then get back to work.
True that about the zombie candidates. That whole primary thing was horrible, with those ghastly neverending debates. Next time there will be a third party and things will be really exciting.
Just a short comment. Moran says that we do not have a “cradle to the grave” welfare America. Correct! We have womb to the grave care. Americans abort 1.25 million “persons” per year and Obamacare is structuted to allow all women with pregnancies not wanted or not planned to have free abotions. And that constitutes a possible 2 million more abortions to the year. Reason? The gov. supports “women’s rights” (sic). Perhaps Moran was alseep as the Catholic Church and various Protestant Chuches protested and are suing the fed. gov. No, fed. care of Americans begins with the insemination of the womb and before with contraception. Moran fails in his counterthesis.
Knock off the doom-mongering. Please. It won’t do you any good, even if it were true. It’ll just make you feel bad. And that negativity will spill over into your life.
If you were a CEO taking over this country, you would not be saying we’re doomed. You’d say we have high debt and a cash flow problem, but tremendous assets.
Really. Hang in there.
Well, “a serious electorate” is for damn sure not one of those assets. If I were a CEO taking over this country, in a moment of frank honesty I would have to admit that the very fact I agreed to take it over is an automatic disqualification with respect to my executive acumen.
$16 Trillion and growing by over $1T per year isn’t merely high debt. It’s unfathomable debt. Debt that all half-honest people acknowledge will not only never be paid, there won’t even be an attempt to pay it.
All we are missing is a lit match, and that is going to be interest rates coming up by even a miniscule amount. It’s ka-freakin-boom at that point.
Well, you are really wrong about that. All it would really take to turn around the economy at this point would be to stop doing the things that are strangling economic growth. Reign in the EPA. Allow more drilling on American territory, both on shore and off shore. Allow pipelines to built from the new sources of energy resources to where the energy is needed. Allow vehicles to be converted t use natural gas without prohibitive EPA certification. Double the number of employees that businesses can hire before regulations kick in. Grant waivers to every state against Obamacare. Reduce the uncertainty about regulations. Remove regulations by executive order.
If these actions were taken today, the economy would rebound overnight and the additional taxes paid by the new economic activity as well as the extra workers combined with the reduced expenses of unemployment would move a long way towards economic health.
Obama will do none of those things. In four years, a lot of the resources that could be returned to work today will be destroyed. In four years it will be a lot harder to fix.
“Be still and know that I am here” God
In 2016 there will not be (most likely) a black candidate for Prez. The black vote will disintegrate once again.
Conservative ideals and candidates are still strong: Ohio and Pa. have republican Governors. Penna. Has a 2/3 republican majority in state and US Congresses.
Conservatives picked up additional US congressional seats and lost two senate races only because of ill spoken ignoramuses, who put some kind of fundamentalist spin regarding abortion.
Economics 101; economies run in cycles. Look how clinton benefited from such a cycle, in spite of his socialist proclivities, yes I know he turned center, but why? because of a conservative congress and the narcissists desire to have a legacy. Well we all know the anointed one is a bigger narcissist than clinton, thus I believe he may just cooperate , albeit somewhat. I don’t know, but we shall see.
The revolutionary war was fought and supported by about 20% of the population, the rest of the population just wanted the status quo with England, or moaned we tried but now its time to give up our hope for independence or simply did not have the stomach for the fight.Thank God the minority held in there.
This has been true for the history of our country, many bitch and moan, demand fuss, but about 20% of us do the actual dirty work.
Stay focused people, don’t just keep the faith but also nourish it. Make yourselves strong mentally and physically.
Be an example to your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. Be kind, tolerant and polite,people will come to you for advice and counsel if they see these attributes. The best way to influence people is by living what you stand for. Do it not just for the betterment of yourself and others, but primarily for the glory of the Father.
One soul at a time my conservative friends.
“Be an example to your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. Be kind, tolerant and polite,people will come to you for advice and counsel if they see these attributes. The best way to influence people is by living what you stand for. Do it not just for the betterment of yourself and others, but primarily for the glory of the Father.”
One of the best posts I ever read here. Many mental patients ranting about various subjects in this site should read this. Each one will have to be responsible for his own actions. Have you noticed how things get worse and worse as we abandoned the good habits and moral integrity we once had?
“Son of the Republic, watch and learn.”
While we may never become a third world heck hole, the effects of Obamacare, along with a financial difficulty (and rising protectionism) of our major trading partners may seriously kick American down a few notches.
The housing and financial collapse did not just magically happen when George Bush was running the country, the seeds of that disaster were sown many years earlier. Whatever Obama does now could come back to bite us in the future.
Obamacare is sort of the wild card. It could really inflict some irreversible harm to the nation’s economy and change the way how interact with private businesses and such.
I wish I shared your confidence, once the dust settles after the US dollar implosion and default on our debt, what sort of society will we have left?
Based on voting trends we are becoming Mexico and Argentina, we will have their economies as well.
We are unlikely to fall all the way down into Zimbabwe or Wiemar Germany but it is very unlikely we will still be regarded as a “first world” country by 2020 or so.
The housing and financial collapse did not just magically happen when George Bush was running the country, the seeds of that disaster were sown many years earlier.
You are correct.
Housing boom and bust happened in CA in the early 90′s and the national bust was the same problem, just bigger. Essentially the problem boiled down to excessive speculation on the increase in land values aka greed. In CA this was easier to see in that there were only so many potential buyers of high priced homes and when the pricing finally tipped into the unaffordable regime and the buyer count dwindled, then houses started losing value everywhere when buyers defaulted. This accelerated by itself. The worst hit was the central valley. It was only a matter of time before the same problem appeared elsewhere.
On the bright side, when companies will only let their employees work 29 hours to avoid the Obamacare mandate, they will have to hire a lot more part time workers and that will make the unemployment statistics look better for Obama so there is that.
In fact, it’s even better than France’s 35 hour work week. That Obama guy, he’s an economic genius.
We won’t face up to this crisis. But a Romney win would have resulted in the exact same stalemate. A Romney presidency might have improved the situation at the margins, but would have achieved essentially the same results. As for halting the slide toward statism, the president’s hands are pretty much tied as long as the GOP maintains its House majority and the filibuster isn’t completely shelved by the Democrats in the Senate.
Moronic, but it’s what I’ve come to expect from PJ’s worst columnist. America rejected a very intelligent, fundamentally decent, highly successful capitalist in favor of a socialist thug.
I reread the piece. It is even worse the second time.
The reason I’ve lost alot of hope is quite simply, this country re-elected the worst president in history, against a good man with business acumen, because the press convinced enough woman that the most important things in life are contraception and abortion. Even one of the scandals during this administration should have sunk him and they barely made a dent.
Until the mainstream press is completely destroyed or marginalized, we’ll never have a fair election.
…because the press convinced enough woman that the most important things in life are contraception and abortion.
This isn’t accurate. Do you have democrat friends? Do you talk to them? What I hear is that they voted Obama because he espoused moderate republican values, which they wanted to vote for, and the R’s (and Romney, whom they liked) were overwhelmed by the batshit contingent (tea partiers, etc.) More than one democrat friend has pointed out, for example, that Obamacare isn’t fundamantally any different than what Gingrich had floated in the mid-90′s. To them Obamacare **is** republican.
In some sense you are leaning in the right direction but unable to connect the dots. The voters rejected what they perceived as the far right.
As long as the news and entertainment media are running year round propaganda that pushes cartoon villain Republicans as an accurate picture, it is going to be tough for Republicans to overcome that with a few months of purchased media every two or four years.
The batshitness of the far right cannot be countered with ***any*** media exposure or marketing gimmicks. All it takes is one bible beating dumbass and the “are you effing kidding me” meter is reset, e.g. candidate Akin.
Do you know any democrats? Talk to them? Most of under-30 crowd isn’t forgiving of clowns like Akin. Most don’t go to church. When the “republican” message presumes that the commn thing we have going is church, it’s an automatic loss.
because the press convinced enough woman that the most important things in life are contraception and abortion.
It’s even worse than that. Some of the 9 million who didn’t vote for Obama switched their votes to Romney, so at least 3 million who voted for McCain didn’t vote for that good man with business acumen. Romney won Independents but our pundits failed to extol his virtues sufficiently, especially in comparison to a corrupt socialist thug.
turnoff ital
Watched a movie yesterday. “Live Free or Die Hard”. Its time for all us conservatives to man up and be “that guy”. Sure we’ve suffered a setback-are we gonna fight or just give it all up to the 47%? Do what we can do and Must do in whatever capacity we have as as parents, businessmen, teachers, citizens, and Patriots!!
Note to Republicans: As far as reacting to the changing demographics which tipped the scales to the democrats this go-round. Stop avoiding the social and cultural issues of the. The only reason given by many blacks for turning against the democracts was their (democrats) championing of abortion and gay marriage. Two social issues which had numerous black pastors questioning their allegiance to the democrat party. As for 3rd world immigrants, how will allowing lax immigration into our country by persons who are only coming here for the freebies, and will vote democrat if for no other reason than to keep the freebies coming, grow your voting base?
None of the “quick fixes” will put a conservative in the White House. So long as the liberals can lie, cheat, and steal votes.
Face the facts. Our electorate majority is comprised of ignorant,
lazy, lying, greedy wannagets. Not to mention known cheating at the polls, about which nothing is being done but whining. The guts have gone. The Allen Wests are too few, the Gingriches side-lined, and the Sarah Palin voices sneered at. All the lectures will accomplish nothing until our schools are cleaned up, the voting controlled and
those who would save our great country get mad enough to fight for it. God bless the U S A !!!!!
Our electorate majority is comprised of ignorant, lazy, lying, greedy…[snip]
One of the successful ploys by the left was to portray the R’s as the party of “anti,” the party of “hate.”
As long as you continue to do your best to live up to this, you’re going to increase the rate at which the GOP is being marginalised.
Could you please try to be an adult and simply say that the electorate and you didn’t agree?
Nice try Mr Moran, but you are too far removed from the reality that the collectivist mentality is definitely on the rise and has been for at least 100 years. There have been ebbs and flows, but mostly we are seeing flows these days. True it is that Romney could have affected very little change in the way we approach government. False it is that this has nothing to do with there having been a seismic shift in the basic individualist philosophy that was contained in our founding documents. We are heavily outnumbered by collectivists and, as with every other empire in human history, this will not go away until the entire empire is reduced to a shadow of its former self. The evidence has been made obvious to me on this point alone. This country has just demonstrated that it can’t tell the difference between a smart, capable, and honest man, and a charlatan who has had four years to reveal that to the whole world. The signature difference between them is that one knew how to appeal to the vast majority of our newly minted American collectivists. We will not turn this around by waiting for another Ronald Reagan. He couldn’t have won election in this environment anyway. Will we ever shift back toward our roots? Not short of a revolution, I say.
PS – I am not whining about losing my country. I got past those feelings many years ago when we were beginning to lose our country. People like Cooke see what we don’t see. The great shining light coming from the beacon up on the hill that is fast losing its luster.
It took John Boenher less than a week to fold like a cheap suit. Obama gets supreme court picks. Obamacare becomes the law of the land. The media is slmost whole cloth part of the progressive govt. Schools have been hijacked at every level. The people paying no taxes are rapidly outweighing the taxpayers. Obama lets in millions of illegal aliens with the stroke of a pen and we’re counting on the republican house and their crying overly tan leader to control it all. Dream on. Anyone with any sense is hunkering down and protecting their own families. The only way to fix our economy is to grow it and I dont see one proposal from Democrats not one that makes me think that will even remotely happen. Human nature is himan nature and economic facts are economic facts.
The difference between now and the thirties? We’ve gone from a safety net to a way of life. Entire attitudes have changed about entitlements and responsibility. America may still be here but it may not be exceptional or that shining city on the hill. It might well be a failed experiment. Lets not forget the possibility of throwing Israel under the bus and political correctness. We still have enimies that dont want us to exist. Willwe have the resources to fight them or even contain them? How long until the middle east completely devolves into chaos? They have zero respect for obama none. In have a difficult time imaging todays american making the kinds of sacrifices our grandparents and parents made during world war two.
This may all be correct, but the majority that elected Obama already showed that performance is not their criteria. Even granting Romney was not a good alternative, whether one is presented in the future seems irrelevant if the Obama coalition continues to maintain its emotionally stunted criteria that ignores reality and historical American principles, which seem to be in decline.
Obamacare.
That’s why this election will doom the Republican, and the Republican Party. If Obamacare gets up and running, it will mark a huge, and permanent, leftward shift in the outlook of millions of Americans. We will all become dependent on the federal government for our healthcare.
Look what happened in the UK after WWII, when they implemented their NHS. The country moved radically to the Left and continued drifting further Left from then on. Now, ALL of their political parties are statist. The only difference between them is they faction that manages the all-powerful entitlement state.
We have 1 hope, and 1 hope only, and that is that Obamacare proves so god-awful horrible that even Democrats have to vote to repeal it.
Otherwise, we’re done.
And the positive trends working in our favor are…
…that we are right and they are wrong and that what Obama is doing is not economically sustainable.
They want to kick the can down the road but they are desperately hungry for money so in return for raising tax rates on upper income taxpayers (I am in favor of letting the Bush Tax Cuts expire since they will raise everybody’s tax rate, including people who are currently not paying taxes at all) Republicans can insist on a few additional revenue enhancers as their price for across the aisle cooperation. Repeal the Eisenhower Movie Tax Cut and restore the 20% tax on movie tickets (and to keep up with the times DVD sales and rentals as well as downloads). Tax income from municipal bonds and trust funds as ordinary income. Why shouldn’t the rich pay their fair share. Eliminate the tax loophole that allows deductions for state income tax.
Wow, it’s always such a shock to drop in on the alternative universe of people like Moran and his fawning sycophants. Only in this universe can an excerpt from an essay by Charles C.W. Cooke gain nodding, unquestioned agreement. Cooke writes:
“. . consider this: A president of the United States just ran a reelection campaign based on the promise of government largess, exploitation of class division, the demonization of success, the glorification of identity politics, and the presumption that women are a helpless interest group; and he did so while steadfastly refusing to acknowledge the looming — potentially fatal — crisis that the country faces.”
This is the continuation of the same alternative-universe, Obama Derangement Syndrome that has created the Invisible Obama that only conservatives can see, one the “liberal” MSM ignores along with most Americans. And the hate-talk and hysteria that created this distortion – illustrated above – is so intense that this imagined Obama elicits not just opposition but virulent hatred. He’s not just misguided, he’s plotting the destruction of America. He’s constantly smeared with every possible label from “fascist” to “communist” to “socialist” to “Muslim” to, hilariously, all of the above and new faux scandals are trotted out daily. Oh, and he reads from a teleprompter and his wife wants your kids to eat carrots!! And you wonder why you lost this election.
I’ve watched in awe for years as the conservatives have developed a competing reality reinforced by their constant repetition of the mantra that they are the victims of a “liberal” MSM. This drives them to tune out this “biased” reality and focus only on those that repeat the version of reality that they subscribe to. The echo chamber that has resulted reinforces this myth further offering not “fair and balanced” as they would like to believe, but an often fact-free bubble where any talking point continually repeated becomes unquestioned “fact”. Ironically, the same echo chamber that is seen by it’s devotees as the place to carefully scrutinize the facts pays no attention to it’s own sometimes blatant distortions. In fact it embraces and celebrates them like a badge of honor. This new set of competing realities – the right-wing echo chamber v. the rest of America – is what now drives more than anything the partisan divide that is making this country ungovernable.
And, if there’s one central reason for your failure in this past election it was that you share a “reality” that most Americans don’t, not because those that oppose your hyperbole-fueled misconceptions are “takers” and you are the “makers” or any of the other various excuses. It’s because you’ve been so successful at fooling yourselves with a faux reality created by the likes of Faux Nooze, Rush LIMPbaugh, Shawn Insannity, Glenn Dreck, and Shrill O’Liely. It’s because you’ve created a bubble that separates you from the rest of America.
Nothing could be more ironic than your success at creating a parallel universe leading to your failure to be able to connect with the rest of America and your defeat at the polls. So, please continue to drink the hysteria-sweetened kool-aid, it’s going to lead to more of the same.
Copernicus was the only one of his time who said the earth revolved around the sun. He was correct and everyone else was wrong. Just because a majority think something doesn’t make it correct. What does Obama do that you approve of? Do you think the charge of division is inaccurate? If so, others might reasonably think you live not in a parallel, but a fantasy universe. Do you believe the NY Times, NBC, etc are purely professional and unbiased? If so, there is a long list of stories they have covered and not covered that would challenge your position.
Hating is destructive for the hater. The hated are usually not affected. There may be some Obama haters, maybe even many, but that some have that emotional need is unrelated to the truth about Obama, who can be very reasonably and unemotionally criticized on many points, as can what you refer to as the mainstream media.
A typical leftist tactic is to discount the message by attacking the messenger. I submit that the issue is not who says something, but the validity or lack of validity of what is said. Of course another leftist tactic is to deny facts and invent their own facts, making serious discussion impossible. From the tone of your remarks, I get the impression it would be quite difficult to have a reasoned conversation with you.
Thank you , Mr. Moran, for a thought-provoking article. As you can see from all the comments, you definitely got readers to thinking.
But let me play devil’s advocate to your premises and suggestions:
What if you are dead wrong?
And what if the exact opposite of what you speak, happens?
Then what?
What a silly post.
Face it, the country most of us were born and raised in is lost. It’s gone. There is no saving it. If you cannot recognize that by now, either your head is buried deeply in the sand or your cartoonish sense of patriotism has swamped your reason. This has been going on, in a concerted manner, for 30 years. 2012 was the tipping point. Demography IS destiny. The fool who went on about “alliterative racism” is just that, a fool. It is not “racist” to see what has happened, recognize it, and name it bluntly. Hell, next you’ll be whining about how merely complaining about Obama’s policies is “soft racism”.
The Left couldn’t get the population to vote for their policies, so they got a new one that would. Simple. Direct. Eeffective. Brilliant. Took 30 years, but it paid off– and it didn’t hurt that Republicans helped them along the way.
It’s nice to think that maybe people who don’t agree with you can be allies, and can at least recognize some of the problems.
Then you read a couple of sentences from this guy and you know it’s hopeless. To him, and McCain and Romney, it’s all kind of a game. They win some; we win some; in the end, it all works out. They really don’t have any principles or believe in America; they are just getting along and expecting some crumbs to fall their way.
Unfortunately, it’s all working out to be the destruction of the country. But Moran will be abolutly convinced it’s just another bump in the road as he is marching to the gulag.
2. Anonymous (apparently no relation to 55.):
“Sometimes, he who dares wins…I have no intention of surrendering, even if the only thing I can do is retreat. But I intend to fight. I hope I am not alone.
I also intend to win…”
I can speak for some others when I say you’re not alone. We aim to misbehave.
Evidently this comment section is misbehaving already; everything’s italic.